Books from Finland - A literary journal of writing from and about Finland.

American Girl goes America

Monika Fagerholm’s novel Den amerikanska flickan has been published by the Other Press of New York.

The American Girl was characterised by Publisher’s Weekly as ‘a hypnotic coming-of-age story that hinges on a dark but powerful bond between two Finnish girls growing up in the swamplands of outer Helsinki’.

The translator is Katarina E. Tucker. The original appeared in 2004 (Söderströms, 2004; Finnish translation, Amerikkalainen tyttö, Otava, 2004). The sequel, Glitterscenen (‘The Glitter Scene’, in Finnish translation, Säihkenäyttämö) was published last autumn.

About the writer

Soila Lehtonen is a journalist and theatre critic, and currently Editor-in-Chief of Books from Finland. She has edited a collection of writings about the city of Helsinki together with Hildi Hawkins, Helsinki: a literary companion (The Finnish Literature Society, 2000).
Hildi Hawkins is a writer and translator, and the London Editor of Books from Finland. She is also the co-editor of things, a journal of writings about objects, their pasts, presents and futures.